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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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U». fiillian. 1. g* gfitt, §, § 



A DISCOURSE 

ON THE 

LIB'E AND CHARACTER 



tb. William g.MtittJ. 



LATE PASTOR OF THE 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 



j-lARRISBURG, f^A. 



BY HIS COLLEAGUE, 

Rev. THOMAS H. ROBINSON 



3 88 



Oh. 



TAYLOR & MURPHY, PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 
1868. 



\ 



Permit me to connect your name with this brief 
tribute to the memory of one with whom you were 
so long and happily associated in life and labors ; 
and with whom also you so completely shared the 
esteem and love of the phurch and congregation, 
to which he ministered for nearly half a century 

T. H. R. 



DISCOURSE. 



Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age : like as a 
shock of corn cometh in. in his season. job. y \ 26. 

Length of days is a scriptural blessing. In ancient times, 
and especially under the Hebrew theocracy, where all earthly 
benefits were the perpetual type of spiritual favors, a long 
life was an eminent token of the divine regard. Death is the 
penalty of human transgression. By the power of divine 
grace it is now transmuted into a blessing to the children of 
God; but in its original significance the shortening of man's 
days upon the earth is a token of God's anger toward the 
race. Under every dispensation, a serene, righteous, and 
hopeful old age has been honored and envied. 

The Word of God, which takes cognizance of all the 
stages and circumstances of human life, addressing itself in 
words of winning tenderness to children, in counsels of cau- 
tion to youth, in lessons of endurance and faithfulness to 
those who are in the heat and the struggle of the day, casts 
also upon the old age of man the light of its blessed consola- 
tions. Eepeatedly and earnestly does it commend gray hairs 
to our reverence. It makes for them imperative demands 
upon our sympathy and our love. It multiplies the vivid and 
happy images whereby it would commend to our eyes the 
beauty and the glory of a righteous old age. "A hoary head 
is a crown of glory." Beauty does not belong exclusively to 
youth. Gray hairs crown the head. They are a crown of 
splendor; not, indeed, in and of themselves merely, for there 
1* 



6 



may be wickedness with them; but when accompanied by 
charity toward man and piety toward God, they form a splen- 
did crown for a finished life. They seem to be a just and 
fitting reward of long and useful service and holy example; a 
recompense for life-long labors, and attainments of many 
years in gifts and graces. 

To the eye that can discern it, there is great beauty in the 
words of the text: "Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full 
age." Thou shalt have length of days; thou shalt not be cut 
down prematurely, in the midst of thy years, nor by any sud- 
den, unlooked-for calamity. Then note the mature beauty 
and loveliness of the concluding image: "Thou shalt come to 
thy grave in a full age ; like as a shock of com cometh in, in his 
season, i. e., as a sheaf of grain harvested when it is fully ripe. 
He shall not be cut off before his plans are fully matured, 
before his work is accomplished, nor before the fruits of 
righteousness had ripened in his own life and character. 
As the yellow, golden grain is reaped and gathered into the 
garners of earth when it is ripe, so is it seemly and beautiful 
that the righteous live to a . good old age, and be ripe for 
Heaven, before they are gathered to their fathers. With 
what a filial veneration do we still, after the lapse of forty cen- 
turies, contemplate the kindly decline and calm departure 
from this world of the ancient patriarchs: Abraham, at the 
age of one hundred and seventy-five years, "in a good old 
age, an old man, and full of years, gathered to his people, 
and buried by his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael." Isaac, when 
age was come and his eyes were dim, bestowing the parental 
blessing; Jacob, leaning upon the top of his staff, blessing his 
sons, repeating the patriotic command that his bones should 
not rest in that strange land; and when he had done, gather- 
ing up his feet into his bed, and yielding up the ghost; Joseph 
dying full of worldly honors; but charging his brethren, with 
his latest breath, to lay his bones to rest with the great patri- 
archal family in loved Palestine; in all these the mellowed 
light of distant ages reveals to us objects before which the 
Christian world has never ceased to bow with child-like love 
and reverence. And still do we not turn with calmed thought 



and reverent feeling from the gayer scenes of youth and the 
busy strifes of middle years, to the chairs in our homes where 
reverend wisdom and graceful piety sit; and, to the gray-haired 
father or the cherished mother, weary now under the burden 
of their years, bring all the gathered wealth of filial love and 
tenderness for many years, and lay it as a tribute at their feet? 
And as we look upon them, and recall the history of their 
days, how they have made God their strength and hope, how 
they have lived upon His truth, does not the prayer of the 
Psalmist dwell upon the lips, "Cast them not off in the time 
of old age; forsake them not when their strength faileth?" 

And sure I am, that I shall not misinterpret the feelings 
and thoughts of this people, when I apply the words of the 
text to that venerated servant and minister of God, over whose 
death these sombre emblems do still proclaim your sorrow. 
He has come down to the grave, who for nearly half a cen- 
tury was pastor and guide of this people, who gave to them 
the enthusiasm of his youth, the vigor of his manhood, the 
ripened experience of his age ; the spiritual father of a multi- 
tude who here were born again ; the wise and cautious teacher 
by whom many scores have been educated and trained for 
glory. 

In full age, outliving the godly men and women who list- 
ened to his ordination vows, surviving until a new generation 
surrounded him, he has at length gone to join that communion 
to which so many of his own flock had departed, and to which 
the good and holy and blessed of all nations and churches and 
dispensations, have been adding themselves for ages. The 
venerated pastor, who witnessed the vows of your fathers in 
their youth ; who sprinkled upon you the waters of baptism ; 
who taught the childhood of stalwart men, and solemnized the 
marriages both of parents and of their children ; who received 
the aged members of this Church into its communion; who 
counseled at the firesides, and prayed in the sick room, and 
buried the dead of two generations ; who, for half a hundred 
years, brought out of the treasury of the Gospel its riches of 
comfort and peace for all times of your sorrow and bereave- 
ment, and who walked before this community without ever 



8 



faltering in his utterance of the great salvation — this venerated 
pastor, his years filled and his work done, has gone to his grave 
"like as a shock of corn in his season." It is left to me to 
present this imperfect record of his life and services, and to 
express my personal sense of his character. 

First, let me bring before you a narrative of his personal 
history. 

Among the most ancient families of Holland descent that 
settled in the State of New York, was that of Tjenick Claase 
De Witt, the first of the De Witt family of whom we have any 
record. He was married in the city of New York, April 24, 
1656, to Barber Andriesen, as appears by the records of the 
Dutch Church of that city. He is described as " van Groot- 
holdt in Zunderlandt," and his wife as "van Amsterdam." 
The names of the succeeding line are as follows : I. Andrie- 
sen, son of Tjenick Claase; II. Tjerie, son of Andriesen; 
III. Petrus, son of Tjerie; IV. John, son of Petrus; 
V. William R., son of John. 

Dr. De Witt's ancestry were of that noble race of men, who 
were Calvinists in religion, and republican in politics, for many 
generations. In December, 1620, the " Mayflower" landed its 
precious freight on Plymouth Rock. In the spring of 1623, 
but little more than two years later, the u New Netherlands" 
brought thirty families of Protestant refugees from Holland, 
and landed them on the island of Manhattan, in New York 
bay. This country was settled through the great continental 
struggles of Protestantism. The New World was the refuge 
of the persecuted sects. The Netherlands, forever illustrious 
by reason of the memorable struggles for civil and religious 
liberty, under the Prince of Orange, against the despotism and 
bigotry of Philip II. of Spain, divides with England the glory 
of having planted the first colonies in the United States. These 
colonies were alike the product of the Great Reformation ; but 
the early Dutch settlements of this country differed from the 
Puritan in one particular of decided importance. The English 
Puritan fled hither for liberty of conscience ; but it was mainly 
liberty for himself; not for others. The motto of the early 
Dutch settlements was, "Let every citizen enjoy entire free- 



9 



<lom of conscience.'' Liberty of opinion was tolerated. Wor- 
ship was allowed to every form of religion. The emigrants 
from Holland were themselves of the most diverse lineage ; for 
Holland had itself long been a gathering place for the unfor- 
tunate and persecuted. Thither had fled the Puritan fathers. 
And w T hen the city of Amsterdam offered a free passage to 
America, and the colony of New Netherlands gave a welcome 
to the persecuted of every creed and nationality, thither they 
came — outcast and wandering Jew r s from Palestine, refugees 
from the banks of the Rhine and the borders of the German 
Sea, Hussites from the heart of Bohemia, persecuted Protest- 
ants from Switzerland, Piedmont and the Italian Alps, Cal- 
vinists from their burned churches, and French Huguenots 
fleeing from the horrors of St. Bartholomew — all came and 
were welcomed. New York was from its origin what it is 
now — a city of the world — a home for all nationalities and 
religions. 

The Dutch were almost universally of the Reformed 
Churches in religious faith, and sturdy lovers of freedom in 
the State. Memorable in the Old World for their devotion 
to liberty and religion, the family of the De Witts partook of 
the spirit of its race, and was early distinguished for its pat- 
riotism and devotion to country. Four generations have each 
furnished defenders in times of national peril. From some 
ancient relics in the family, we learn that Petrus De Witt was 
a captain in the old French war, and fought under Wolfe, at the 
siege and capture of Quebec. His son, John De Witt, during 
the entire Revolutionary war, was the captain of a company of 
minute men appointed to guard the loyal citizens against the 
incessant and troublesome raids of the Tories, who abounded 
in the section of country north of New York. After the close 
of the war he was elected a member of the Convention of the 
State of New York, and voted for the adoption of the Con- 
stitution of the United States. He also served for several 
years as a member of the Legislature of his native State, and 
in minor offices of Duchess county. His son William R. 
bore part in the war of 1812, and his grandson Calvin, son 
of William R., served as a captain in a Pennsylvania Regi- 



i 



10 



ment during the late Rebellion, and William R. De WiTT y 
Jr., was connected with the Medical Department of the Army 
in the field for several years, and attained to high rank. 

William Radcliffe De Witt, the sixth son of John De 
Witt, was born at Paulding's Manor, Duchess county, New 
York, on the 25th of February, 1792. He was named after 
his uncle, the Hon. William Radcliffe, of Rhinebeck, Duch- 
ess county. The family of the Radcliffes, to which the 
mother of Dr. De Witt belonged, were distinguished in civil 
life ; one of them, Jacob Radcliffe, serving for several years 
as a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York ;; 
another, Peter Radcliffe, an eminent lawyer of the New 
York bar, and a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of 
Kings county; and a third, William Radcliffe, for many 
years United States Consul at Demarara. 

At the early age of ten years, he was deprived, by her death, 
of the counsel and love of a mother. After spending several 
of his earlier years in school, and receiving a common English 
education, William R. was employed as a clerk, first in his 
father's store in the city of Albany, New York, afterwards 
with his brother Cornelius, in Fairfield, Herkimer county,, 
and later still in the store of his father and brother at New- 
burgh, New York. At about the age of fifteen he entered 
into the employ of Cairns & Lord, dry goods merchants, of 
the city of New York, and continued with them until the year 
1811. Whilst residing with them, and in their store, his mind 
became much exercised on the subject of his own personal sal- 
vation ; and on January 8, 1810, he made a public profession 
of religion, connecting himself with the Presbyterian Church 
in Cedar street, then under the pastoral care of Rev. John B. 
Romeyn, D. D. Shortly afterward his attention was turned to 
the subject of the sacred ministry, and his own duty in respect 
to it. 

One of the special agencies to which Dr. De Witt, in later 
years, referred as having a great bearing on his conversion and 
subsequent religious life, was that of a young men's prayer 
meeting, carried forward by the father of the well known 
William E. Dodge, Pelatiah Perit, for many years Presi- 



11 



dent of the American Bible Society, and a merchant of high- 
est reputation in New York, and the brothers Eleazar and 
David N. Lord, both of whom were afterwards men noted for 
their piety and their standing in the Christian Church, and 
as writers of great repute. Mr. Eleazar Lord was especially 
urgent in pressing upon the young clerk the duty of devoting 
himself to the sacred profession. Dr. De Witt ceased not to 
his latest years to speak of Mr. Lord in terms of highest 
gratitude and respect, as greatly instrumental under God in his 
conversion and introduction to the ministry. 

After careful consideration and prayer over the matter, 
Mr. De Witt felt called of God to relinquish all worldly ends, 
and prepare for the responsible office; and in 1811, then in his 
nineteenth year, he left New York, and went to reside with 
Rev. Alexander Proudfit, of Salem, Washington county, 
New York, and entering Washington Academy, began a 
course of classical studies under the tuition of Mr. Stevenson, 
the principal of the school. Of these two men, Messrs. 
Proudfit and Stevenson, whose influence in forming the 
spiritual and intellectual character of the young student must 
have been considerable, I know very little beyond their 
names. Mr. Stevenson had a fine reputation as a classical 
teacher of great success ; and his pupil was, through life, a 
writer of more than ordinary eloquence and purity of style. 

While still a student at Washington Academy, the second 
war with Great Britain broke out, and leaving his studies, 
young De Witt enlisted as a volunteer in the regiment of Col. 
Rice, that was called out to resist the invasion of the British 
at Plattsburg, and was on lake Champlain at the time of Me- 
Donough's victory, September 11, 1814, when the whole 
British fleet became the trophies of American valor. After 
the close of the war, sometime in the year 1815, he entered 
Nassau Hall, Princeton, New Jersey, as a Sophomore, and 
while there became a member of the Whig Society. During 
his connection with the College, a somewhat celebrated rebel- 
lion broke out among the students, and such was the inter- 
ruption in the studies of those who wished to pursue their 
college course with diligence, that Mr. De Witt left, and 



12 



entered the senior class of Union College at Schenectady, New 
York. The celebrated Dr. Nott had at that time been Pres- 
ident of the College for some twelve years ; and at the ripe 
age of more than ninety years, still holding the same office,, 
preceded his pvipil into the eternal world by but a few months. 
Among Dr. De Witt's college friends we find the names of 
several who rose to distinction in later years; some in the 
Church, and some in civil life. Of the latter, Gov. Penning- 
ton, of New Jersey; of the former, Rev. Dr. R. W. Condit, 
of Oswego, New York; Rev. Dr. Harrison, of Virginia; Rev. 
Charles S. Stewart, so long and well known as a Chaplain 
of the United States Navy; Rev. Dr. Charles Hodge, of 
Princeton, and Bishops Johns and McIlvaine. Some of these 
men of honored name still survive. 

Leaving Union College before the close of the senior year,, 
Mr. De Witt returned to New York, and entered the Theo- 
logical Seminary of the Associate Reformed Church. Of this 
institution, the celebrated Rev. Dr. John M. Mason was the 
very life and soul. He filled the chair of Theology with an 
almost unparalleled ability, and stood in the front rank of 
American divines for scholarship and eloquence. It was a 
matter of no minor importance to a young student of divinity 
to be under the quickening influence of so versatile and pow- 
erful a mind as that of Dr. Mason. While in the Theological 
Seminary, Mr. De Witt connected himself with the Pres- 
bytery of New York, as a candidate for the Gospel ministry. 
The following record is taken from the minutes of that 
Presbytery : 

At New York, the 23d day of April, 1818. 
The Presbytery of New York, having received sufficient testimonials 
in favor of William R. De Witt, of his having gone through a regular 
course of literature, of his good moral character, and of his being in the 
communion of the Church, proceeded to take the usual parts of trial for 
his licensure ; and he having given satisfaction as to his accomplishments 
in literature, as to his experimental acquaintance with religion, and as to 
his proficiency in divinity and other studies, the Presbytery did, and hereby 
do, express their approbation of all these parts of trial; and he having 
adopted the confession of faith of this Church, and satisfactorily answered 



13 



the questions appointed to be put to candidates to be licensed, the Pres- 
bytery did. and hereby do. license him. the said William R. De Witt, to 
preach the Gospel of Christ, as a probationer for the holy ministry, within 
the boundary of this Presbytery, or wherever he shall be orderly called. 

Isaac Lewis, Moderator. 

Alexr. M'Clelland. Clerk. 

The academic, collegiate and theological course of study 
pursued by Mr. De Witt had occupied but little more than 
half the time usually devoted to them in our Church ; yet he 
seemed to be thoroughly fitted for his work. The summer 
months of 1818 were spent in preaching in the State of New 
York, a part of the time in the city of Schenectady, to a 
Church that desired him as pastor, but whose solicitations he 
declined in favor of the field of his life-long labors. Early in 
the fall of 1818 he received, through a friend, an invitation to 
visit Harrisburg. He was not acquainted with a single resi- 
dent of the place, and knew nothing of it, beyond that it was 
the seat of government of Pennsylvania. There seemed to 
be few reasons why he should turn from the Churches of the 
East to come hither. Our city was then a borough of scarcely 
more than twenty-five hundred inhabitants ; a large part of 
whom were of German descent. The Presbyterian congrega- 
tion was feeble in numbers, and had enjoyed since its organ- 
ization, in 1794, the labors of two settled pastors — Eev. Na- 
thaniel E. Snowden for eleven years, and Eev. James Bu- 
chaxax for seven years. For the three years prior to Mr. De 
Witt's coming, it was without a pastor,, and wholly dependent 
on occasional supplies. Having accepted the invitation to 
make a visit to Harrisburg, he came and spent two weeks, 
preaching on the Sabbaths, and also several times during the 
week days. His reception by the people was very cordial, and 
so delighted were they with his ministrations, that with one 
voice they presented him an urgent invitation to become their 
pastor. The call was issued on the 5th of October, 1818, and 
is in these words: 

- The congregation of Harrisburg, being on sufficient grounds well 
satisfied with the ministerial qualifications of you, Mr. William K. De 
Witt, and having good hopes, from our past experience of your labors. 



14 



that your ministrations in the Gospel will be profitable to our spiritual 
interests, do earnestly call and desire you to undertake the pastoral office 
in said congregation, promising you, in the discharge of your duty, all 
proper support, encouragement, and obedience in the Lord; and that you 
may be free from worldly cares and avocations, we hereby promise and 
oblige ourselves to pay to you the sum of twelve hundred dollars annually, 
in regular half yearly payments, during the time of your being and con- 
tinuing the pastor of this Church." 

At a meeting of the Presbytery of Carlisle, held at Big 
Spring, October 6, 1818, leave was granted to the congrega- 
tion to prosecute the call before the Presbytery of New York. 
The call is signed by the four Elders of the Church : Messrs. 
Samuel "Weir, Moses Gilmore, John Stoner and William 
Graydon, and by sixty-one other members of the congrega- 
tion. The latest living of those four venerable men, Mr. 
William Graydon, preceded his pastor into the eternal world 
by over twenty-seven years. Of the remaining sixty-one 
signers of the call, but one outlived the youthful pastor. 
Among them were men who afterwards occupied high posi- 
tions in civil life, or were called to offices in the Church — 
Chief Justice Gibson, of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ; 
William Findlay and Francis R. Shunk, Governors of the 
State; and Messrs. Sloan, Agnew, McJimsey and Nielson, 
who were subsequently ruling Elders in the Church. Of the 
Board of Trustees then in office — George Whitehill, Presi- 
dent, James Trimble, Secretary and Treasurer, William Mur- 
ray, Robert Harris, Richard M. Crain, William Allison 
and Andrew Mitchell — not one survives. 

The spirit in which the call was accepted by Mr. Be Witt 
was indicated by his letter of acceptance; in which, expressing 
his reliance on the grace and strength of the Lord Jesus, he 
besought "the earnest prayers of the pious among them," 
that he " might be brought among them in the fulness of the 
Gospel of Peace, determined to know nothing but Christ 
Jesus and him crucified, the power of God and the wisdom of 
God unto salvation." 

He was dismissed from the Presbytery of ~New York at the 
fall meeting in 1818, and recommended to the care of the 



15 



Presbytery of Carlisle as a licentiate; but having reached 
Harrisburg subsequent to the fall meeting of that Presbyter} 7 , 
his admission to that body was deferred to the regular meet- 
ing in the spring of 1819. He commenced his ministry in 
the congregation, however, soon after his acceptance of the 
call, in October, 1818, and continued it from that time forward 
without interruption. On April 13, 1819, he was received 
under the care of the Presbytery of Carlisle at its meeting in 
Carlisle ; and a part of the examinations preparatory to his ordi- 
nation and installation, took place at that time. A popular 
sermon was assigned him on Matthew, xxi: 22, "And all 
things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall 
receive." As the older members of the Presbytery were 
averse to hasty ordinations, the remainder of his examina- 
tions and the ordination were postponed until the next fall 
meeting. On the 26th of October, 1819, he was ordained to 
the office of the sacred ministry by the Presbytery of Carlisle, 
in the First Presbyterian Church of Carlisle; of which the 
venerable Dr. Duffield, now of Detroit, was then pastor. 

Kev. Jeremiah Chamberlain, afterwards a distinguished 
divine of the Presbyterian Church, and President of two of 
the southern Colleges, was ordained at the same time with 
Mr. De Witt. At the ordination, Rev. Dr. A. A. McGinley 
preached the sermon, Rev. Dr. H. R. Wilson presided as 
Moderator, and Rev, Dr. William Paxton delivered the 
charge to the newly ordained ministers. A committee, con- 
sisting of Rev. Henry R. Wilson, D. D., Rev. Dr. James Snod- 
grass, and Rev. James Sharon, was appointed to install Mr. 
De Witt over the Harrisburg Church. The installation took 
place on the 12th of November, 1819, Dr. Wilson preaching 
the sermon, and the other brethren delivering the charges to 
the pastor and the congregation. He was now fully settled in 
his first and only charge, to be separated from it by the hand 
of death alone. The number in the communion of the Church 
was small, though the attendance on the services of the sanc- 
tuary was quite large. The entire membership, it is believed, 
did not exceed forty. The youthful pastor entered upon his 
labors with much trembling and many fears; but was encour- 



16 



aged and sustained by a few pious excellent men, and a larger 
number of godly praying women. He found in existence a 
weekly prayer meeting conducted by the female members of 
the Church. That meeting survives to this day, the ornament 
and glory of this Church. He found a Sunday School of all 
denominations ; but supported and taught chiefly by members 
of this Church. This school fell shortly under the exclusive 
care of this Church, and was the parent of the schools now in 
the Church. Girding himself for his work, and determined in 
the strength of God to make his own efforts and all the talent 
and power of the Church conspire for success, he was not with- 
out ample reward. He brought the Elders and other male 
members of the Church into harmony and earnest co-operation 
with him. A prayer meeting was organized among them for 
their own spiritual improvement; but as the spirit of prayer 
increased, the numbers who came multiplied, until it was 
attended by large numbers. Those Elders and laymen became 
men remarkably gifted in prayer. Their meetings were first 
held in private houses. In a short time no private dwelling 
could hold the numbers who desired to attend. A large log 
school house, which stood at the foot of Capitol hill, corner of 
Third and Walnut streets, was obtained and used. It soon 
became too strait for the gathering crowds. The evidences of 
the presence of God's spirit multiplied. Dr. De Witt, in the 
latest years of his life, often recurred to those signal tokens of 
divine approval which were bestowed on his earliest ministry 
here, and with kindled countenance recalled the names of 
Whitehill, Weir, Sloan, Agnew, and others, who then so 
earnestly seconded all his efforts, the spirit of earnest prayer 
and christian love that prevailed,, the deep sympathy for the 
conversion of sinners, the sweet singing of hymns in their 
social meetings, and the kindness and indulgence with which 
himself and all his ministrations were treated by the people. 
At a communion season held the first or second Sunday after 
his ordination, twenty-one were added to the Church; all but 
two on the profession of their faith. , It was a large and happy 
accession, both to the numbers and the spiritual strength of 
the feeble Church. The Church grew rapidly, and became 



17 



very influential in the community. For several years, but few 
communions occurred in which there were not some added to 
the Church. 

Among the instrumentalities, in addition to the public 
preaching of the Gospel and the meetings for prayer, early 
employed by Dr. De Witt, and which gave great efficiency to 
his ministry, we may not omit to mention the instruction of 
the children of the Church in the Catechism, and of the older 
youth and persons of advanced age in a Bible class. His cate- 
chetical instructions began shortly after his arrival. The chil- 
dren were gathered, on stated occasions, and repeated the 
Catechism to their pastor; while once a week, for many years, 
he met his Bible class, often a very large one, and gave to it 
the results of his own ripened studies of the sacred Word. 
Dr. De Witt was always strongly attached to the good old 
Presbyterian custom of drilling the children, in the family and 
in the Church, in the very text of the Shorter Catechism. 

In his views of the public ministry and the functions of the 
minister of the Gospel, he differed widely and conscientiously 
from those who regard the chief work of the sacred profes- 
sion to be the mere conversion of sinners, or the multiplica- 
tion of the numbers who shall profess Christ. He sought, and 
devoted largely his thoughts and labors " to edify the body of 
Christ/' to perfect the saints, to deepen evangelical convic- 
tions in the minds and hearts of those who were already in the 
Church of Christ, to train up around him a body of sound, 
orthodox and intelligent Christians. It was his aim to pro- 
mote a permanent state of healthy, living piety in the Church, 
by means of which there should be continued accessions and 
steady growth throughout the year. It was only when the 
providence of God most clearly indicated the duty, by an 
increased spirit of prayer and labor in the Church, and of 
anxiety in sinners, that he would turn aside from the ordinary 
means of grace to the use of special agencies. Observation^ 
and the experience of his own ministry, had confirmed and 
strengthened him in his judgment of the paramount import- 
ance, to a successful and growing Church, of maintaining a 
steady, intelligent and consistent piety among the members 
2 



IS 



and families of the congregation. Thankful to God, as he was, 
for repeated and signal outpourings of divine grace, by which 
scores were brought into the Church, the most noted of which 
were in the years 1819, 1824, 1827, 1830, 1834 and 1843, he 
was most comforted and most grateful when his labors were 
blessed with perpetual rewards, and every communion beheld 
a small number joining themselves to the people of God. The 
entire number of additions to the Church during the forty-nine 
years of his sole and his joint pastorate of the Church was 
over eight hundred and fifty. These blessings from above 
were to him among the happiest results of Dr. De Witt's 
labors in this charge. 

The first year of his pastorate (June 22, 1819) was signalized 
by his marriage with Julia Anna Woodhull, daughter of Rev. 
Kathan Woodhull, at her mother's house, Long Island, by 
his former pastor, Rev. Dr. John B. Romeyn, of New York. 
She was born at Newtown, Long Island, February 23, 1799; 
and therefore came among this people at the early age of 
twenty years as the wife of their pastor. This happy relation, 
involving so much of earthly hope and responsibility, was sadly 
broken, within three years, by the death of Mrs. De Witt, May 
1, 1822; but memories of her long lingered in the congregation 
as a woman of great personal beauty and attractions, of refined 
and winning manners, and accomplished mind, joined to a deep 
and unaffected piety of heart and life. She rapidly won the 
entire confidence and ardent love of the Church, and endeared 
herself by a great and happy influence. Her death was the 
occasion of general mourning. A sister of this lady was the 
wife of Rev. Richard S. Storrs, D. D., of Braintree, Massa- 
chusetts, the life-long friend and counsellor of Dr. De Witt. 

On March 15, 1825, he was married by Rev. George 
Duffield, D. D., to Mary Elizabeth Wallace, daughter of 
William and Eleanor Maclay Wallace, of Harrisburg. 
This union, by the kind providence of God, was continued 
until severed by his own death, a period of nearly forty-three 
years. 

The early pastorate of Dr. De Witt, though signalized by 
so many blessings, in the happiness of family ties, in the love 



19 



of a united people, and the favor of God crowning his labors 
with success, was not without its trials. He came to a Church 
weak in numbers, and weak in pecuniary resources, and that was 
frequently compelled to struggle with burdens of indebtedness. 
He had been promised a salary that, for the times, was large 
and ample. The people discovered, soon after his arrival, that,, 
in their eagerness to secure him as their pastor, they had made 
engagements that were hard to fulfill; and then, at a time when 
two Churches in two large eastern cities were opened for him, 
Dr. De Witt came generously forward, and relinquished two 
hundred dollars per year of his salary ; and when again, a few 
years later, the Church, under the pressure of financial bur- 
dens, had become largely his debtor, by arrears in salary, he 
again freely forgave a large part of the debt. It was only by 
the closest calculation, and the strictest economy, that, upon an 
income far less than he might have anticipated in any other of 
the professions, he was enabled to give his children a liberal 
education, and lay aside something for advancing years and a 
bereaved household. 

When he came also to understand the circumstances in 
which he was placed by his new relation as a settled pastor, 
he found himself in a position of great difficulty, and in the 
face of trials and exigencies which would severely test his 
courage and faithfulness. The position was one that demanded 
large abilities and cultivated talent as a preacher. His people 
were always an intelligent people, the equal of any congrega- 
tion of their day, in intellect and cultivation. The Church 
was, for many years, the leading one in the community. It 
was largely attended by strangers, by those who held the 
offices of the State government, by the professional men of 
the town, and by the members of the Legislature, when many 
of the leading men of the State counted it an honor to belong 
to that body. The demand on him for study and intellectual 
preparation was no slight one. 

There were elements of trouble also, both in his own con- 
gregation, and much more in the community. Worldliness in 
his own Church; the absence both of the spirit and the power 
of vital godliness; the laxity of Church discipline that tolerated 



20 



immoralities; the low standard of piety in the surrounding 
Churches, that made religion with many of its professors little 
more than semblance and form, and demanded, as a prepa- 
ration for admission to their communion, no radical change of 
heart; the prevalence in the community of pernicious social 
habits and customs, gambling, drinking, lotteries, fairs for 
mere revelry and dissipation, which were held in the open 
markets, and attended by people from all parts of the sur- 
rounding country, and were utterly demoralizing in their 
influence ; these, with other like things, opened the eyes and 
stirred the heart of the young pastor. To meet and counter- 
act and uproot them he girded himself, determined that, with 
the strength of God, he would cease no effort until he had 
fully prevailed. He began first in his own pulpit, preaching 
there the simple Gospel of Christ, in pointed and pungent 
application to the hearts and consciences of his hearers. He 
sought to make Christians feel their responsibility, to lead them 
to a higher standard of piety, to a greater separation from the 
customs and practices of the world, to more active and effi- 
cient labors for the conversion of men. He endeavored to 
impress upon all the deep necessity of a vital change of heart, 
and the wide difference between the godly and the wicked; 
and so counteract the low and lax ideas that prevailed con- 
cerning Church membership. I am told by those who remem- 
ber the events of those early times, that his preaching was 
like the advent of new truths in the community, and that it 
excited much discussion and considerable opposition. It did 
not fail of having decided effect. It roused the formalism of 
many Church members, and quickened the stolid lethargy of 
many of the impenitent. 

With a plain, unsparing fidelity to public morals, he 
attacked, by all the weapons he could invent and use, the per- 
nicious customs of the times. Especially did he set himself 
to completely destroy the annual fairs, which were but seasons 
of carousal, of wild and reckless dissipation, when many, 
who at other seasons of the year were decent and moral, gave 
themselves up to an almost unrestrained license. He attacked 
the custom in public and private, exhausting argument, ridi- 



'21 



cule and solemn appeal. He preached, lie wrote brief tracts, 
and got the young men of his congregation to circulate them 
broadcast, in the markets, the streets, and the highways lead- 
ing into the town, that they might fall into the hands of all r 
and be read by all. The result was a complete success. It 
is said that some persons who picked up the tracts on the 
highway, and read them, were so deeply moved by them, 
that they turned back to their homes, without entering the 
town. The fairs were utterly broken up. It was not, how- 
ever, without great opposition, and exciting the wrath of 
those classes of the community who live and thrive only on 
the vices of their fellow-men. His opposition to the gambling 
dens and low theatres, and all infractors of the laws that are 
designed to protect public morals, was decided and open. He 
asked and gave no quarters in his conflict with them. A per- 
sonal friend of the Doctor's came to him one day, in a state of 
great excitement and distress, and informed him that his ene- 
mies, irritated by his guardianship of the public morality, 
had, in ridicule and as a means of bringing him into public 
contempt, determined to run him for the office of town con- 
stable, and had actually issued the tickets with his name on 
them. He earnestly begged him, as a safeguard to his honor 
and his position as a minister of the Gospel, to appeal to the 
public, and announce his purpose not to accept the office if 
elected. "l$o I" said the Doctor, "I will do no such thing. 
Go tell those men that if I am elected I will serve, and will 
see that the laws are faithfully executed against them. I shall 
neither withdraw my name nor pay the fine of refusing to 
serve when elected. Let them vote for me if they wish. 
They will get enough of me before my term expires." Fright- 
ened by the bold stand he had taken, they hurriedly expunged 
his name from all their tickets. 

Dr. De Witt was an early and life-long friend of the tem- 
perance reformation. When the total abstinence movement 
was yet unpopular in moral and religious circles, he threw the 
whole weight of his character and influence in its favor, and 
earnestly advocated it. A society formed on that basis was 
organized in this city in the early part of his ministry, hl 

9* 



22 



which he was a prime mover. I find in the old records that 
its first officers were composed almost wholly of Dr. De "Witt 
and the Elders and members of his Church. With his hearty 
co-operation, this Church, at a very early day, took, and has 
*ever maintained, a high and noble stand on the subject of 
temperance; refusing admission to its communion to any man 
who was either a manufacturer or vender of intoxicating 
drinks. 

In very few places of our country, of the population of this 
city, has the religious element been so thoroughly evangelical 
as here. The people have been characterized by their solidity 
and soberness. They have been very little given to change — 
of opinions, place or occupation. Errorists have been but 
slightly tolerated. The isms that have agitated and disgraced 
other communities have had but slight force. It was said 
years ago that the soil was too barren for them to grow. 

A somewhat famous attempt was made, however, in the 
early part of Dr. De Witt's ministry, between the years 1824 
and 1828, to introduce Unitarianism and its twin error, Uni- 
versalism. The celebrated Dr. Joseph Pkiestley, a man of no 
mean abilities, and a voluminous writer, had come to this 
country from England, where he had been engaged for years 
in controversies, and settled in Northumberland, and drawn 
around him quite a large society of very intelligent people, and 
established a flourishing Church of the Unitarian faith. One 
of his followers and disciples was the Rev. Mr. Kay, an Eng- 
lishman of fine address, pleasing manners, considerable scholar- 
ship, and a speaker of more than ordinary attractiveness. Mr. 
Kay came to Harrisburg as the chief apostle of Unitarianism. 
I find him announced in the papers of that day as " to preach 
in the Court House, in the morning, at ten o'clock, and in 
the evening, at early candle light." His manners and style of 
eloquence, were at first somewhat captivating, and quite a 
number gathered around him, of that class who want some 
form of religion, but prefer as little of the spirit of it as pos- 
sible. A few perverts from the Evangelical Churches joined 
him — a very few from this congregation. It was confidently 
anticipated that he and his friends would soon sweep all before 



23 



them, and become the leading congregation of the town in 
standing and numbers. The evangelical clergy were chal- 
lenged to open discussion by this new champion. His friends 
boasted of his powers as an orator and logician. After 
preaching for a time in the Court House, a small and beautiful 
church building was erected for their use in Locust street, on 
the site of the present Methodist Episcopal Church. It was 
a principle with Dr. De Witt never to engage in public theo- 
logical or religious discussions, well knowing how fruitless 
they all are. He, however, deemed it his duty to warn and 
instruct his own congregation ; and in a series of thoroughly- 
prepared sermons, he set forth the entire argument for the 
divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, with all the skill and power 
which he could command; but without any direct allusions to 
Mr. Kay and his friends, or their arguments. During their 
delivery, from Sabbath to Sabbath, quite an excitement was 
created, and a deep interest manifested. Some of the friends 
of Mr. Kay attended Church, took notes, and then wrote 
anonymous letters to the Doctor of mingled argument, invec- 
tive and abuse. No notice was taken of them. It is related 
of Mr. Kay that he was accustomed to carry into his pulpit a 
copy of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and in the course 
of his sermon open it, and read from it, commenting as he 
read, in a learned and impressive way, and then as he finished 
a page, tearing it from the book in a melo-dramatic manner, 
and flinging it aside ; as if, after his comments, that immortal 
work would be heard of no more. It was soon discovered 
that the elements that were gathered into the new enterprise 
were not exactly of the kind for a permanent organization, 
that sought the spiritual welfare of men. It was doomed to 
a brief existence. 

At about the same time, the building now occupied as a 
a Female Seminary was in progress of erection as a theatre. 
A godly woman, a member of this Church, deeply moved by 
the two evils which were before her eyes — the windows of 
her house looked out upon theatre and church — set herself to 
pray against them, and continued strong in faith, ceasing not, 
until her prayer was completely answered. The theatre ended 



24 



in disgrace, and nearly in murder; and the Church was utterly 
broken up. Its members scattered, going into the ungodly 
world, to which they chiefly belonged, and the building and 
grounds around it became most forlorn, ruinous and dilapi- 
dated, and was known, until at length removed to give place 
to something better, as the "goat church," from the number of 
goats that made it their retreat. Thus ended the first and, 
we believe, the last attempt made to plant that peculiar kind 
of error in, organized form, in this community. It furnished 
an episode of no little moment in the life of a young pastor, 
and doubtless had a large share in deepening and strengthen- 
ing those views of Jesus Christ, as the sum of the Gospel, the 
substance of all true preaching, the co-equal God with the 
Father, the Great Head of the Church and Judge of the 
World, that have ever so characterized the ministrations of 
Dr. De Witt. 

Among the chief trials of his ministry were those of 1838 
and 1858 ; the first, culminating in the division of the General 
Church into two great braoches, soon we hope to be re-united 
in a union that shall last, and grow purer and stronger unto 
the millennium ; and the second in a division of this particular 
Church into two bodies, that from henceforth, forgetting all 
the sadness of the past, we hope will only seek to excel each 
other in love and good works. 

In the conflicts that preceded and accompanied the greater 
division of the Church in 1838, Dr. De Witt was an interested 
and active participant. In his theological views, he was always 
and justly ranked with those who were deemed to be the 
stricter and more rigid Calvinists; and would be called, (by 
those who are disposed to make such distinctions,) an Old- 
School man. He never hesitated to avow his dissent from the 
views of some who were regarded as the leaders and exponents 
of New-Schoolism ; but regarding the measures adopted in the 
trials of Rev. Dr. Duffield and Rev. Albert Barnes, and the 
acts of the Assembly of 1837, in the excision of the four 
Synods, and the proceedings which had grown out of those 
acts, as unconstitutional, unjust and unkind, he, with several of 
his brethren of the Carlisle Presbytery, withdrew from the 



25 



jurisdiction of both the General Assemblies formed in 1838, 
and from all the lower judicatories, and assumed an indepen- 
dent position. This Church, unwilling to be separated from 
their pastor, and agreeing with him in his views of the existing 
troubles, by an almost unanimous vote, on the evening of July 
2, 1838, also withdrew from the ecclesiastical control of all 
higher judicatories in the Church, and took an independent 
position. 

This relation to both the bodies claiming to be the General 
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, 
was maintained by Dr. De Witt until Tuesday, March 4, 1840, 
when he applied for admission to the newly organized Presby- 
tery of Harrisburg, in connection with the New School body, 
and was received as a member thereof. On -the 5th of Novem- 
ber following, the Church, with but a single dissenting voice, 
voted to apply for admission under the care of the same Pres- 
bytery ; and on the 26th of November, 1840, the application 
was made through their commissioner, Mr. Alexander Gray- 
don, and the Church became a constituent member of the 
Presbytery of Harrisburg. This connection has been main- 
tained since that date. 

The trial of 1858, first in the destruction of the Church edi- 
fice by fire, and in the subsequent division of the Church into 
two bands, was a much more severe one, as it involved the 
rupture of personal ties, and a separation from families that 
had been under Dr. De Witt's ministrations for forty years. 
He deeply felt it ; and nothing but the fact that, under the 
providence of God, it had tended to the increase of the mem- 
bers and the influence of the Presbyterian family in this city, 
softened the regret with which he remembered and spoke of it. 

Early in the year 1830, the Church was blessed by a gracious 
revival. Dr. De Witt was assisted by Eev. Heman Norton, 
a man of real kindliness and geniality of spirit, though appa- 
rently very stern ; an earnest Christian, a devoted minister, 
and a preacher of quickening power to the consciences of men. 
After his services here, he was pastor of a Church in New 
York five years, and in Cincinnati two years, where his health 
failed. Several subsequent years of his life were spent in con- 



26 



nection with revivals of religion in New Jersey and Pennsyl- 
vania. At the time of his death, November 20, 1850, he had 
been for some years a corresponding secretary of the American 
and Foreign Christian Union. He returned to Harrisburg in 
the winter of 1842-3, and preached in connection with the 
remarkable revival of that time ; but his former power, as an 
awakening and convincing preacher, was to some degree lost. 

The revival of 1834 was also one of great power and very 
extensive fruits. The winter of 1842-3 was the most dis- 
tinguished one in the religious history of this Church. Not 
only was this congregation, through all its households, moved 
by the presence of the Divine Spirit, but the entire community. 
The work of conversion was more general than at any prior or 
subsequent period. Everything was set aside by the people 
that they might attend to the interests of their own souls, and 
the souls of their fellow-men. Daily meetings were held for 
the space of two or three months. Members of the Legisla- 
ture, then in session, participated in them. Two Senators 
were among the converts, one of whom subsequently entered 
the ministry of the Episcopal Church — Rev. Mr. Spaceman. 

Dr. De Witt's principal helper in the arduous and incessant 
labors of that period, was Rev. Dr. Harmon Loomis, now one 
of the secretaries of the American Seaman's Friend Society,, 
then a young man, pastor of the Church at Mount Joy, and 
but a few months before from New England. His labors here 
are still fresh in the memories of the members of this Church. 
He greatly endeared himself by his social intercourse, by his 
clear, incisive, pungent presentations of the Gospel. His dis- 
courses, though brief and simple, fell with great power upon 
the minds and hearts of the people. One hundred and thirty 
connected themselves with the Church on the profession of 
their faith. Over one hundred, at the call of their pastor, rose 
at one time, and formally and solemnly dedicated themselves 
to God. Many of the most active and devoted Christians of 
subsequent times, and of the present day, point to that era as 
the date of their conversion to God. A few have since denied 
the faith, but most of them have maintained a good profession. 
The large addition at that time not only greatly encouraged 



27 



the heart of the pastor, but brought into the Church several 
young men who have since served the Church here and else- 
where as elders, and increased the number of its membership 
to the highest standard in its history. The incidents of that 
time have often since been recounted by Dr. De Witt and the 
members of this Church. Subsequently a reaction followed 
that was sad and painful. A season of spiritual drought ensued. 
Spurious converts and apostates withdrew from the communion 
of the Church ; but a far greater number of converts live to 
this day, to attest the presence and power of the Divine Spirit at 
that wonderful time. During the seven years from 1845 to 1852 
inclusive, the Church was cold and dead in religious life. But 
few conversions occurred. The number of Church members 
decreased through death and dismissal to other communions. 
They seemed to have lost all activity and concern for the cause 
of Christ. The heart of the pastor became greatly discouraged. 
In the spirit of self-depreciation and reproach, he attributed 
the cause of the religious dearth to his own ministrations, and 
felt that his usefulness and success as a pastor and preacher of 
the Gospel were nearly at an end. In the earlier years of his 
ministry he had determined that, if spared to the age of sixty 
years, he would then either wholly withdraw from the active 
labors of the minstry, or seek the assistance of a colleague. 

He had now passed that period by nearly three years. De- 
pressed in his own feelings over the condition of the Church, 
and looking upon it as a providential intimation of his own 
duty, after long and serious meditations upon the subject, and 
frequent consultations with his ministerial brethren and with 
the leading men of the Church, he determined to accept the 
position then pressed upon him by the Governor of the Com- 
monwealth, of State Librarian, and relinquish a part of his 
pastoral duties to such colleague as the congregation might 
call to co-operate with him in the ministry. Some of his 
dearest and most intimate friends, feeling that there was an 
incongruity between his position and long standing, as a widely 
known and honored minister of Jesus Christ, and the civil 
office which he proposed to accept, were very loth to consent 
to the arrangement ; but at a public meeting of the pewholders 



28 



and communicant members of the Church, held February 6, 
1854, the following preamble and resolution were adopted 
with great unanimity, viz : 

" The congregation having heard the statements of the pastor, desire 
to express their high regard for him in the various relations he has sus- 
tained among this people, during the period of his long pastorate. His 
worth and services are cherished in our affections, and will endure with 
our memory. His separation from us has always been regarded, when- 
ever in any way referred to, as an evil to be deprecated and avoided ; and 
it would not now be entertained, but in the partial way proposed. Ac- 
quiescing in what appears, from his views and statements, to be the 
leadings of Providence, and trusting that the Great Head of the Church 
will bless both him and this people in the measure proposed, therefore, 

" Resolved, That it is expedient, all things considered, that the pas- 
toral relations heretofore subsisting between Rev. William R. De 
Witt, D. D., and this Church and congregation, be so far changed that a 
co-pastor be associated with him in the duties of this office." 

In pursuance of this arrangement, the present pastor was 
called in the summer of 1854, to serve as colleague with Dr. 
De Witt. For several years subsequent to this date the Doctor 
preached once on each Lord's Day, often with all the vigor of 
earlier years, until, with failing strength, the number of his 
ministrations was lessened, and finally, in 1865, he relinquished 
entirely to his colleague the active duties of the office, and the 
general care of the Church. 

Dr. De Witt had now more than numbered his " three 
score years and ten." He had received the successor, indi- 
cated by the providence of God, with open arms, and through 
eleven years of associated pastorate, had labored with him in 
the G-ospel, and treated him with a kindness and regard that 
will be remembered through life. Seldom in the history of 
the Church has a co-pastorate been of so long continuance or 
attended with such a unanimity in doctrinal views, and in the 
practical measures employed for the advancement of the cause 
of Christ. Of those who welcomed his coming and settle- 
ment in his pastoral charge, but few, here and there one, 
remained in the land of the living. He had followed them to 
the grave, and in his age stood surrounded by a new genera- 



29 



tion. But the ties that bound him to this Church, the Church 
of his early and his life-long love, the only one among all the 
Churches of America that he had ever called his own, and for 
whose sake he had refused repeated calls and solicitations to 
settle elsewhere, seemed only to grow stronger as the burden 
of years divorced him from active labors in its behalf. As 
early as 1822, within four years after his settlement, a call 
was sent to him from the First Presbyterian Church of Brook- 
lyn, New York; and an appeal was made to him to allow his 
name to come before the Essex Street Church of Boston. In 
1833, long continued efforts were made by the Presbyterian 
Church at Meadville to induce his acceptance of a call from 
that body. In 1836, the Central Church of Northern Liber- 
ties, Philadelphia, extended a call. In 1845, the Reformed 
Dutch Church of Kingston, Long Island, prosecuted, for some 
time, a very urgent call to him to become its pastor. These 
all were declined. Though often discouraged and deeply 
despondent over the apparent fruitlessness of his labors here, 
he could never consent to break the bonds that united him to 
this people. Here he had buried their dead and his own. 
To them he had given the dew of his youth, the strength of 
his manhood, the care and counsel of his ripest years. It was 
natural and reasonable that, after so long a pastorate, he 
should desire to live and die among the people to whom he 
had, for nearly half a century, preached the unsearchable 
riches of Christ; and that the bond between him and them, 
of pastor and people, should be broken only on the edge of 
the grave. It was a wish often expressed, and whose strength 
we can only estimate when we recall his long and close rela- 
tion to this Church, his connection with a great multitude of 
the sainted dead, over whose dust he had pronounced the last 
solemn benediction, and with the living, who had been called 
into the Church by the truth that fell from his lips. The 
wish was gratified; for while he yielded to his colleague the 
active duties and pastoral care of the Church, he retained, to 
the moment of his death, his relation to the Church as its 
senior pastor. His official labors were now nearly accom- 
plished. So long as he was able to go out at all, even when 



30 



the increasing infirmities of years weighed heavily upon him, 
he attended the House of God, at the Sabbath service and the 
social meetings of the Church, taking his accustomed seat in 
the pulpit. His last public address was in behalf of the female 
prayer meeting of the Church, which, during the whole of his 
long ministry, had been regularly maintained, and had proved 
a most faithful ally to his labors. He spoke with great ten- 
derness of its past history, and urged upon all the female mem- 
bers of the Church an attendance at its weekly gatherings. 
His last official duty is believed to have been the examination 
of a young candidate for the ministry. Sitting up in his bed, 
he faithfully and kindly, drew from the young man an account 
of his religious experience, of his views of the ministry, his 
call to the work, and purpose in entering upon it; and, with 
the experience of half a century before him, uttered his words 
of counsel and encouragement, and pronounced his benedic- 
tion upon the youthful worker. 

There seemed to be nothing reserved for him now, in the 
Providence of God, but for a little longer, amid the trials and 
infirmities of age, to exemplify the beauties of the Christian 
character, and the power of the Gospel he had preached, to 
comfort and sustain. As he drew nearer the hour of his 
appointed change, saved, in the kindness of God, from great 
physical suffering and weakness, able still to attend to the 
accustomed duties of his household, with his mental powers 
unimpaired, his thoughts of the coming world became softened 
and subdued by the light that was breaking upon him from 
the heavenly world. He spoke of his departure with calm- 
ness, yet with great tenderness of feeling. His earthly cares 
were all set in order, and he waited for the summons of his 
departure. It came, as he had long desired, suddenly, and 
without the warning of pains and helplessness. In a moment 
" the golden bowl was broken;" with a breath the spirit melted 
away, to join the innumerable array, whose robes are washed 
and made white in the blood of the Lamb. 

There remains to me the difficult and delicate duty of 
referring to the character of my late venerable colleague. 
The ministerial services of nearly fifty years, the eminent 



31 



standing which he maintained, his wide reputation as an able 
and faithful minister of Jesus Christ, and the long-continued 
and affectionate personal relations which subsisted between 
the deceased and this Church, are a more fitting eulogy than 
any words that can be spoken. They leave for me only a 
simple and faithful record of my own personal estimate of his 
character in his private and official relations. 

The elements of personal character and of personal power 
over others, very seldom proceed from the pre-eminence of 
one distinguishing trait; but usually from the combination of 
many qualities, physical, mental and moral. There was no 
one element in the character of Dr. De Witt that would 
instantly and universally be pointed out, as the source of his 
influence, or the characteristic of his life. There was rather a 
balance of qualities and elements in him that preserved him 
from all idiosyncracies. 

There was weight in his personal presence. There was that in 
his appearance and bearing, when in his prime, or in the vigor 
of full health, that inspired respect and indicated power. 
His person was of full size, and good proportions, in early 
and middle life, and was the expression of manly vigor and 
dignity. Those who remember him as he entered upon his 
ministry here, speak of his handsome and imposing presence, 
his noble carriage, his finely developed frame, and glowing, 
manly countenance. And, at the latest years of his life, 
when his step was enfeebled and slow, and the body began to 
bend, his patriarchal aspect, as the whitened locks gathered 
like a crown of glory on his head, the calmness and gravity 
of a face so slightly altered by age, secured for him an invol- 
untary homage and deference. 

He was a man warmly social and genial in his temperament. If 
he sometimes was taciturn and abstracted in the presence of 
others, and appeared to be distant and cold, it was the excep- 
tion to his general life. His home life was filled with true 
and tender affections; and they who have often met him in 
society, know that there were few who could better enliven 
and entertain than Dr. De Witt. He was a ready and fluent 
talker, a man of quick impulses and generous feelings, of 



32 



ready wit, apt at repartee ; and when lie opened his fund of 
reminiscences of earlier times and men, all were ready to listen. 
In the meetings of the Presbytery and of the Pastoral Asso- 
ciation of this city, his presence was ever welcomed as that 
of a friend of peace, a genial spirit, a pattern of gentleness 
and forbearance. And in his own congregation, though often 
deeply depressed and despondent over his labors, and feeling 
keenly the need of sympathy, yet when was there ever a 
substantial sorrow to which he did not give his presence, or a 
grief that lacked his sympathy. 

Dr. De Witt was a man of self -deprecative and modest nature. 
Few felt more readily than he a word of kindness. With a 
keen and high sense of his calling as a minister of the Gospel, 
and an honest desire to preach the Gospel worthily and pow- 
erfully, he seldom left the pulpit without a sense of failure 
and personal unfitness, wholly unwarranted by the character of 
his preaching, either in the matter, or the manner of its deliv- 
ery. When his hearers were both delighted and instructed 
by his discourses, he himself went from the house of God 
with a heavy heart, and sought to reach his home unseen; 
discouraged that he should so poorly proclaim the great salva- 
tion. There was no self-glory in his nature. No one put a 
lower estimate upon his services and abilities than he himself,, 
or less frequently alluded to them. 

Dr. De Witt was a man of unquestioned power as a preacher. 
His reputation in this regard stands on a broad foundation. 
His position at this centre of influence, the capital of the State, 
gave him uncommon opportunities of reaching many men of 
intellectual standing and of great influence from all parts of 
the State. He was a man of fine scholarship. He possessed 
a voice of great sweetness, clearness of tone and power. As 
a reader of the Holy Scriptures very few excelled him. In 
his early ministry, his preaching is said to have been peculiarly 
bold and eloquent in manner ; and by the added novelty, 
beauty and pungency of his thoughts, stirred to the depths 
the elements of society. His discourses were written with 
great clearness and purity of style. Many of his sermons, in 
their matter, their form, and in their delivery, were models of 



33 



pulpit eloquence. He was impressive, dignified and graceful.. 
Other men may have excelled him in versatility of talent ; but 
it has fallen to the lot of few men to mould educational, moral 
and religious influences in so wide a sphere and through 
so many years. The end at which he aimed was the. turning 
of men to God and the training of the religious life of his 
people; and his chief instrumentality was the studious and 
careful preparation and the impressive delivery of good ser- 
mons. To this he gave diligence, talent and time, and seldom 
allowed himself to be diverted from it, to the employment of 
other agencies. He believed in the power of the Gospel when 
fully and fairly presented. 

He was eminently a Christian preacher. Converted in. his 
early youth; brought under the influence of men whose 
praise was in the American Churches for their zeal, and piety r 
and deep devotion to the cause of Christ; drawn by his own 
youthful ardor into the ministry, the preaching of the Gospel 
was a work of love. And to his vision all truth arranged 
itself around one centre — the cross of the world's Redeemer. 
From that centre he seldom strayed; seeking to obey the 
maxim of an old divine, to have enough of Christ in every 
discourse to point the way of approach to Him to any inquir- 
ing soul. He was decidedly evangelical and scriptural. He 
cared little for human speculations, dealt sparingly in what 
may be called the philosophy of Christianity; but taking the 
truths of the Divine Word as they are revealed; the lost, ruined r 
helpless condition of man as a sinner ; the provision which 
God has made for his recovery in a vicarious atonement; the 
contrasts of law and grace ; the character and completeness of 
that righteousness of Jesus Christ which is "imputed unto lis 
and received by faith alone;" the regenerating and sanctifying 
influences of the Holy Spirit; the divine nature and kingly 
authority of Jesus Christ; the relations of his atoning blood ta 
all promises of good, all growth in Christian life, and all hopes 
of Heaven ; as well as to all threatenings of evil, and the con- 
demnation of the guilty; in the region of these and their 
related truths, that bring the great facts and principles of the 
Gospel before the mind, Dr. De Witt was a preacher of great 



34 



power. He never speculated about the Gospel, nor handled it 
as a mere theory, nor used its grand themes for the purpose of 
intellectual entertainment or the display of his own oratorical 
powers. 

No one, I am persuaded, ever departed from listening to 
one of his discourses with the impression that he preached 
himself, or aimed at the applause of his auditors. The display 
of his own rhetoric or of his own eloquence was evidently 
forgotten in the desire to present, worthily and mightily, before 
the consciences and hearts of men, the great facts of the 
revelation of God. It was never my privilege to hear him 
when in his prime. More than three-score years rested upon 
him when we first met. He felt that he was declining, and 
the weakness of discouragement weighed him down. But I 
have heard him on such themes as the immutability of the 
divine counsel ; the depths of man's fall, and the greatness of 
his salvation ; the grounds of pardon in the sufferings of the 
Son of God; the constraining power of Christ's love — when 
it seemed that under such presentations of truth every heart 
would be touched, every will be bowed. Clearness, precision, 
force, characterized his demonstrations; fulness, fervor and 
pathos marked his appeals. Perceiving the glory and feeling 
the preciousness of the truth himself, he exhausted his powers 
to secure a like impression on the mind and heart of his 
hearers. 

Nor should I omit to mention that, with all his power as a 
doctrinal preacher, setting forth, with clearness and great 
force, the living, pungent principles and facts of religion, and 
establishing a wide and honored reputation as an able defender 
of the great points in Calvinistic theology, he was also very 
effective in preaching the truth in its direct relations to Christ- 
ian experience. He seldom, and then but sparingly, and 
generally in the confidence and familiarity of the lecture room 
and social prayer meeting, referred to his own experience of 
the power of the truth and the consolations of religion ; but 
you who have listened to his delineations of the struggling 
convicted sinner; of the humbled, broken-hearted penitent; 
of the war in the Christian breast between the flesh and the 



35 



spirit; of the peace of forgiveness and rest of faith in one 
who sees, and fully comprehends, and appropriates the great 
atonement; and have heard his eloquent voice falter and break 
under the tide of swelling emotion, when he spoke of the ful- 
ness of Christ and the glory of the Christian's hope, have felt 
assured that his treasures of spiritual knowledge and spiritual 
feeling and powerful impulse came out of a heart that felt the 
Gospel, and knew Christ as a personal friend and Saviour. 
It has been said that " a minister's heart may always be judged 
by his public prayers." Dr. De "Witt's public devotional 
exercises were characterized by fervor and dignity, by deep 
emotional power, and solemn earnestness. In their holy rev- 
erence, their scripturalness, their variety and adaptation to 
the phases of the Christian life, their deep sense and correct 
expression of human want and divine grace, and their exalted 
adoration, few extempore prayers surpassed them. 

A Presbyterian by birth, education and preference, firm 
and decided in his theological views, in all the habits of his 
thoughts conservative, and jealous of the new and untried, he 
was yet liberal and catholic in spirit. Never wavering in his- 
preferences for, and adherence to the Church to which he was 
attached, there was yet no spirit of exclusiveness in him, that 
claimed for his denomination all truth and goodness. During 
a ministry of nearly fifty years in this city, he enjoyed the 
confidence of all his ministerial brethren. He was ready to 
assist them in every good work, and seldom, in public prayer, 
omitted to call down the blessing of God upon them and their 
Churches. Toward all who loved the Lord Jesus Christ in 
sincerity and truth, he preserved a true affection, and upon; 
them all besought the grace, mercy and peace of God. 

Dr. De Witt was ever a warm friend of missions, botfo 
home and foreign. With the originators and leading men in 
that greatest of American agencies for evangelizing the world, 
the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,, 
he maintained a life-long friendship and hearty co-operation, 
having been chosen a corporate member of the Society in 
1838, and, in 1842, receiving the honor of an appointment to> 
preach the annual sermon before the Board. 



36 



Dr. De Witt's published writings are very limited in num- 
ber. They are, I believe, only the following; 1. A Discourse 
in behalf of the Colonization Society; 2. A Sermon on the 
Death of Adams and Jefferson; 3. On the Evils of Intemperr 
ance; 4. An Address on the Death of Gov. F. R. Shunk;.5,> 
A Pastoral Letter to the Churches under the care of the Pres- 
bytery of Harrisburg; 6. A small volume entitled "Her 
Price above Rubies;" 7. The Sermon before the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; 8. An Address 
a.t the Dedication of the Harrisburg Cemetery; 9. A Sermon 
on the Death of Rev. Dr. Moody; 10, 11, 12. Three synod- 
ieal sermons, entitled " Ministerial Responsibility," " Prayer 
for Zion," and "The Church that Christ loved;" 13. A Sermon 
when Seventy Years of Age. Let me express the hope that a 
volume of his discourses may be prepared and published as a 
permanent memorial of his life. 

-Dr. De Witt received the degree of A. M. in course, from 
Union College, Schenectady, New York; and on July 13, 1838, 
he was honored by the University of Pennsylvania, at Phila- 
delphia, with the title of Doctor of Divinity. 

Jlis tongue is now silent. The voice that so long uttered 
in your ears the messages of God is hushed in death. I have 
given you a most imperfect view of his life and character. 
Int this Church, where he officiated while yet among you, 
amid these signals of mourning, that silently proclaim; the 
respect and the sorrow of your hearts, in front of. this pulpit, 
from which he was wont to address you, lay the calm remains 
of the pastor of half a hundred years, beautiful in deaths 
while a large concourse of people, by their reverent presence, 
pronounced his eulogy, and testified that his ; death was a gen- 
eral bereavement. A funeral anthem was sung, prayers were 
offered, his favorite Scriptures were read, , brief words were 
uttered; and then his venerable form was carried to the burial, 
^o repose with the ashes of many to whom he had broken the 
l>read of life. He has accomplished the. great departure from 
the temporal to the eternal; from the. sight of. men to the 
vision of God. From a world where imperfection mars the 



37 



best services, he has gone to a world where he shall glorify 
God without intermission, weariness or defect. He has severed 
for a little time the ties that bound him to the living, that he 
might 'go -and renew forever the broken bonds of friendship 
and love ; meeting the - godly men who surrounded his youth, 
the holy and redeemed ones who from this communion had 
preceded him to glory. 

To us who abide, remain the memory of his counsels, the 
remembrances of family love and Christian friendship, of 
Church communions in sorrow and in rejoicing, of his pres- 
ence at baptism and marriage, at the dying bed and the burial 
for two generations. 

We may tell of parentage, of birth, of education ; we may 
gather up the incidents of conversion, ordination, preaching, 
illness and death ; we may sum up professional labors, and 
number the years of active toil ; but the life of a Christian 
minister, who has grown up to manhood and venerable age 
with a community, identified with all its highest interests, 
with the power of his talents, his character, and his whole life, 
abiding in it, cannot be revealed by mere incidents. For fifty 
years Dr. De Witt preached Christ's Gospel. He spoke to 
the intellects and consciences of men ; he quietly planted the 
seeds of Divine truth ; he worked about the roots of character; 
he infused his own conceptions of saving doctrine into the 
minds of one or more whole generations ; he guided inquirers 
into the way of life, comforted the dying, consoled the mourners 
of more than two-score years ; he linked his life with hundreds 
of other lives by a perpetual influence; and now, after his 
own heart has ceased to beat, his ideas and hopes and aims 
and traits of character live on, unrecognized, in many other 
lives and hearts. Such lives can never be written by mortal 
pen. It is no light honor to be the chosen instrument of 
Divine mercy to but one of our fellow-men ; but when their 
numbers multiply and increase into a great company, all the 
honors of earth grow dim and fade away in the comparison. 
The end of a true pastor is not personal comfort nor per- 
sonal fame. It is to present his hearers, in that mighty congre- 



38 



gation above, perfect in Christ Jesus. And if, as the years 
roll on, the aged and the middle aged, and the young of this 
congregation, one by one, go up ^nd stand with their fathers 
and venerable pastor alike before God, it will be an infinite 
compensation for all the ministries of earth. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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